Percussion cutter



March 17, 1931. A l. WooLmmm.Y 1,796,905

' PERCUSSION CUTTER I Filed Jan, 51, 1929 10' Fig 4 W 7&1

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mvENToR E 1 ATTSRNEY (.7

Patented Mar. 17, 1931 STATES PATENT OFFICE ALBERTO I. WOODRING, OF WATERLOO, IOWA, ASSIGNOR T NATIONAL SAFETY DE- VICES COMPANY, OF WATERLOO, IOWA PERCUSSION CUTTER Application led January 31, 1929.

My invention relates to improvements in percussion cutters, and the obj ect of my improvement is to supply a device adapted for use on railway vehicles or other supporting means to clear ice, snow or other adherent removable substances from the bearing surfaces of rails or other objects traversed by the device, by percussion thereon, in breaking up the coating.

Another obj ect of my improvements is to combine with said cutting percussion device pneumatic means for reciprocating the device and whichmeans and device include discharge passages therein for exhaust fluid therefrom in jets or currents upon the rail or other object to be treated, to blow away particles of the removed coating in thus efectively clearing the treated surface in a rapid manner.

I have accomplished the above objects by the means which are hereinafter described and claimed, and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is an assembly of the reciprocatory cutter, its housing, pneumatic operating means, and the operating valve connected with said operating means, certain elements being shown in elevation, others in central longitudinal section, and with other parts broken away. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the sectional housing.

Fig. 3 is a bottom end plan of the lower section of said housing. Fig. 4 is a side elevation ofthe removable cutter head of the device.

It is to be understood that my invention herein covers any minor modification in said parts which come within the scope of the appended claims and within the spirit of the invention.

The operating valve shown herein is covered by my United States Patent No. 1,511,554, dated October 14, 1924, and the pneumatic percussion device by my United Stages Patent No. 1,634,927, dated July 5, 192

My invention herein therefore combines with both of the said devices other means for particularly removing ice or snow or other adherent coatings from rails or other elements while simultaneously supplying air .9 jets upon the treated surfaces to expel frage Serial No. 336,569.

ments of the removed coating, and including manual handling of thedevices.

The pneumatically actuated percussion device includes a sectional housing composed of the connected parts 1 and 17 The cylinder part 1 is closed at the upper end and open at its lower end, the lower end part being diminished in exterior diameter to be fitted slidingly into the upper wider hollow 16 of the lower housing part 17 the hollow 5 of the partgor cylinder 1 being cylindrical, while the hollow of the housing part 17 is diminished in steps as at 16, 22 and 23, the lower end of the housing part 17 being closed but having a central bearing aperture 34. The upper closed end of the cylinder 1 is provided with a relatively small air-inlet port 6 with an angular part 7 opening outwardly laterally as shown in Fig. 2, to receive compressed air from a pipe 35 leading from an operating valve chamber 37. A cupped shape plunger or piston 11 is slidably fitted in the hollow 5 of the cylinder 1, and has a closed lower end with an annular flange 14 without the cylinder, the upper end of the plunger being open. The lower end part 15 of the cylinder is ordinarily contacted by said flange 14 when the plunger is in its upper position held yieldingly by a coiled compression spring 26 in the housing part 17 which bears against said flange and against the lower lclosed end of the part 17. The housing-part 1 has apertured ears 2 secured bymachine screws or bolts 3 to a truck frame end piece 4,y which forms a part of a wheeled truck of a railway car, and positioned at a determined height above the tread of a T-rail 58 below. The cup-shaped plunger body 11 has a number of radial ports 13 effecting communication between the hollow of the cup AVand an annular outer circumferential groove ill) -narily in Contact with its seat.

Thecutter head maybe of any desired shape to conform at its cutting edge' with thev shape of a surface to be treated. As shown, its edge 31 is shaped to conform to the upper iat tread surface of the rail 58 below and has at one end a depending semicircular edged projection'f32 which conforms at its inner curve tothe abutting side flange of the rail head. rl`heV he'ad30 is reversible upon .the stem 24,;forr treating. either'insidelange of arail.

The'. upper part of the housing member 17 is split at 19 for a short distance downwardly longitudinally, and said part 17has an integral pair. of spaced lugs 18 ateach sideO thesplit .19, ther lugs being apertured in alinement across said split to receive a headed screw 20 adapted to draw the lugs together in thus clamping by a slight contraction at the split` theupper part of the member 17 upon the diminished lower part 15 of the upper member 1,.toprevent air leakage.I

While the plunger may be actuated by'- any other suitable means the'` means exemplified herein isfoundvery pr'acticaleand especially for operationV by compressed air received through apipe 35 from an operating valve 37, the'valve' V37 being thus described.

The valve-chamber 37 is composed of vertically superposedv and connected body sections. rl`he medialsection has an inner chamber' 49 from which leads a passage 38 which maybe placed in communication with a reservoir of compressed-air not shown. A partition part separates the chamber 40 from an upper chamber 47, the partition being apertured between these chambers, the aperture having aiitting winged guide'45 movabletherein and the latter having a depending. stem seated and vthreaded into a socket in av depending stem 41er1 a valve body'43' which is cupped and filled with anelastic liner 44 contacting with the lower valve seat. A coiled compression spring 42 bears upwardly against the` valve body 43to retain it: ordi- The upper end of the slide part 45 has a central upwardly directed stud or pin46 projecting into the said upper chamber 47 The valve chamber medial section alsov has therein a passage 39 eifecting a communication between the upper chamber 47 and the pipe v36 which delivers to the pipe part 35 and thence to the cylinder passage 7 and=6. ln the chamber 47 is a body 51 verticallylr'eciprocable, with aV central depending part 49 a little above and alined with the pin 46, and with an upwardly extending diminished part 52 seated slidingly in an apertured bearing seat in the upper section. This part 2 is closed at the top over a central longitudinal bore which above is turned at a right angle at 53 outwardly. A coiled compression spring 48 is engaged between the body part 51 and the bottom of the chamber 47. An arched member 54 is secured upon said valve chamber to be astride the upper end of the movable valve part 52.

On the member 54 is pivoted at 55 the curved or cam end 57 of an operating arm 56, whose cam edge 57 contacts with the top or the valvepart 52.

It should be noted that the lower closed end of thelower housing part 17 has a plurality of downwardly directed air delivery holes 33 to deliver jets of compressed eX- haust air from the cylinder and said part 17y downwardly alongside the cutter head 3'0 upon the rail 58 below.

In cold weather ice or hardened snow often coats the bearing tread of the rail 58 and its inner upper angle, causing the car wheels of a truck to become electrically insulated from the rail and to slip thereon. My device used 'to strike the ice or otherY adherent matter with theedge of the cutter head 30"-32 rapidly to thus chip offv the coating. Air jets from the housing ports 33 are directed upon the matter being chipped olf and blow the same away, thus leaving the railclean upon its bearing faces.

When the operator depresses the arm 56, its cam edge 57 pushes downwardly the valve part 52 closing the aperture 53, the part 51 compressing the spring 48, the lower'end or'v the stem 49 engaging and pressing downwardly the valve pin 46 with thev valve 43-44,V so that compressedair in the lower chamber 40 rushes into the chamber 47, thence through the passage 39, pipe sections 36 and 35, andthe angular passage 7*-6in the cylinder'l to Jforce. downwardly theplunger'11.

The plunger 11 moves downwardly inthe cylinder 1 until the groove 12 and holes 13 are below the lower end of the housing part 15', and as the flange 14 is also below this end, the air in the cylinder hollow 5 exhausts through the interspace of the flange 14v and the inner wall of the cylinder to enter the housing part chamber 16. As the inlet port 7 6 is'very small in cross section, the air exhausts fromthe hollow 5 more rapidly than air enters by the port, so that the spring26 under compression is released to thrust upwardly the` plunger 11 to its initial upper position. rllhe air then again illsV the hollow 5 almost instantly to drive the plunger down again. Thus a very rapid reciprocationof the plunger 11 with'itsV stein and cutterv head 30 is eiected toward the tread of the rail 58 almost but not quite contacting the rail and chopping up the ice or other coating. Each charge of air under pressure in the housing part 17 is driven through the delivery ports 33 directively downwardly on all sides oi? the cutter head 30 to blow away the particles of ice from the rail tread, leaving it clean.

When the operator releases the arm 56, the cooperating springs 42 and 48 act to respectively close the lower valve 43, and in coaction with the residue of compressed air in the chamber 47, the upper valve 52 is lifted until the outer end of the bore 53 is exposed to the atmosphere, exhausting the air in the chamber 47, the lower end of the depending part 49 of the valve then becoming spaced from the pin 46, which sets the device for another operation, with the plunger l1 at its upper position due to the exhaustion of the air in the cylinder l to atmospheric pressure, leaving the spring 26 without appreciable compression.

The arrangement of the respective operating valve and its connections to the percussion device is arbitrary, and may be varied according to the requirements. Also the device shown may be applied to any other or analogical uses desired, as its employment is not confined to the specific use shown and described.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

l. A device of the character described, comprising a pneumatically actuated reciprocatory cutter head having a stem, a hollow housing closed at both ends, one end having an apertured bearing scat traversed by said stem, and having a plurality of air delivery ports arranged around said stem to deliver exhaust air under pressure upon said cutter head and the region immediately around it, said cutter head being shaped to lit the contour of an element to be cleaned of an adherent removable coating, and a pneumatic device in said housing mounted on said stem and having peripheral ports for exhausting air therethrough and to the housing beyond said device and thence through said air delivery ports, whereby the exhausted air under pressure from the latter ports sweeps away detached parts of the coating removed by said cutter.

2. A device of the character. described, comprising a sectional housing whose sections are detachably connected in alinement, a pneumatically actuated plunger in one section having peripheral passages for exhausting air at one limit of the movement of the plunger and into the other section, said plunger having a stem traversing an end bearing aperture of said other section, a cutter head mounted removably and reversibly on the termination of said stem, the end of ALBERTO I. VVOODRING.

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